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percival_whyborne's review
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
misha_ali's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
This was enjoyable enough. As with the other entries in this series by this author, I find these fun and interesting enough but they lack the spark that makes me really root for these characters or engage with them. I enjoyed this one, particularly for investigating what life and making a living looks like for a former woman of means who remains insistent on not marrying a man.
andrea_author's review
5.0
After a duke’s will creates a scandal, widow Joan flees London and takes on a new identity in the seaside town of Inverley. Joan accepts fashionable Maeve as a boarder, and is soon drawn to the worldly and seductive spinster. As Maeve uncovers Joan’s secrets, can the two women defy a dukedom’s expectations and find love together?
Both Joan and Maeve are sympathetic characters. They’re each in a precarious financial situation without the benefit of a husband, and they work together to protect their future. The plot is strong and the pacing held my interest throughout. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys sapphic historical romance.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Both Joan and Maeve are sympathetic characters. They’re each in a precarious financial situation without the benefit of a husband, and they work together to protect their future. The plot is strong and the pacing held my interest throughout. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys sapphic historical romance.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
cakt1991's review
4.0
The Secret Duchess is the third installment in Jane Walsh’s Spinsters of Inverley series. It can be read as a standalone, although I do recommend checking out the others. I continue to love how Walsh grapples with the issues women faced in the Regency, especially if they happened to be queer, while providing them both realistic and hopeful paths to an HEA, and this one was no exception.
Joan and Maeve are each great spins on common historical romance archetypes, and are very sympathetic as a result. Joan is a widowed duchess, having endured a loveless marriage and is now reckoning with a scandal related to her late husband’s long-buried secrets now coming to light. Maeve finds herself compelled to leave home following her mother’s remarriage, and I love how, as someone who loves fashion and style, she has to find a resourceful way to make her own way in the world.
I really liked the romance between Joan and Maeve. I wasn’t sure at first about Joan hiding who she was from Maeve, but it does come from a realistic place of shame for the scandal, and later fear for what could befall her. And once Joan is comfortable letting Maeve in, the two women really bond over their shared struggles navigating the world, helping each other and finding solace in each other.
This was a fairly sweet read, and I’d recommend it to readers who are looking for historical sapphic romance.
mxsallybend's review
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
The Secret Duchess and I got off to a bit of a rough start because I didn’t initially care about either of the main characters. They seemed rather shallow, self-indulgent, entitled women, and while I felt bad for their rude awakenings, I wasn’t prepared to be particularly sympathetic to them. Had this not been a Jane Walsh novel, I’m not sure I would have kept reading.
Of course, I did keep reading, and I did soon come to understand the careful undressing of layers here, and how deftly Walsh built not just a romance, but the women within it. They start out seeming shallow and self-indulgent because they were raised to put social standing and appearances before all else. Neither Joan nor Maeve have ever had the opportunity to know themselves, much less be themselves, so being stripped bare of their social standing is indeed a rude awakening.
That rude awakening is a darkness that looms over much of the story, with sorrow, grief, uncertainty, and even horror that colors every moment. It’s heavy, but it’s also necessary for us to shift from understanding to accepting to empathizing with Joan and Maeve. Their struggles reveal the strength of the women inside, and an acquaintance forced upon them by circumstance slowly blooms into friendship before flowering into romance – which is where the book shines brightest. I loved getting to know these women, seeing how they treated others when there was no longer a social ladder between them, and witnessing how they became far more than the roles they’d cast aside.
I quickly came to adore Maeve, and to feel for Joan. I wanted them to be together for Joan’s sake, perhaps even more than Maeve’s, and I loved how Walsh navigated the first stirrings of love between them. Joan is so innocent, so naive when it comes to affairs of the body, and Maeve is the perfect woman to guide and instruct her. Their first fumblings are so sweet in the language and lessons learned, and it’s a delight to see passion and love develop almost simultaneously. As courtships go, this was one of my favorites in the genre!
The story does sort of race towards a climax in the final chapters, but it’s the perfect culmination of the entire story, with people coming together out of a sense of family and love, regardless of role or position, to see to it that the right thing is done – even if (or especially if) it’s not what we expected.
https://sallybend.wordpress.com/2024/01/07/book-review-the-secret-duchess-by-jane-walsh-romance/
Of course, I did keep reading, and I did soon come to understand the careful undressing of layers here, and how deftly Walsh built not just a romance, but the women within it. They start out seeming shallow and self-indulgent because they were raised to put social standing and appearances before all else. Neither Joan nor Maeve have ever had the opportunity to know themselves, much less be themselves, so being stripped bare of their social standing is indeed a rude awakening.
That rude awakening is a darkness that looms over much of the story, with sorrow, grief, uncertainty, and even horror that colors every moment. It’s heavy, but it’s also necessary for us to shift from understanding to accepting to empathizing with Joan and Maeve. Their struggles reveal the strength of the women inside, and an acquaintance forced upon them by circumstance slowly blooms into friendship before flowering into romance – which is where the book shines brightest. I loved getting to know these women, seeing how they treated others when there was no longer a social ladder between them, and witnessing how they became far more than the roles they’d cast aside.
I quickly came to adore Maeve, and to feel for Joan. I wanted them to be together for Joan’s sake, perhaps even more than Maeve’s, and I loved how Walsh navigated the first stirrings of love between them. Joan is so innocent, so naive when it comes to affairs of the body, and Maeve is the perfect woman to guide and instruct her. Their first fumblings are so sweet in the language and lessons learned, and it’s a delight to see passion and love develop almost simultaneously. As courtships go, this was one of my favorites in the genre!
The story does sort of race towards a climax in the final chapters, but it’s the perfect culmination of the entire story, with people coming together out of a sense of family and love, regardless of role or position, to see to it that the right thing is done – even if (or especially if) it’s not what we expected.
https://sallybend.wordpress.com/2024/01/07/book-review-the-secret-duchess-by-jane-walsh-romance/
wunder's review
3.0
This was OK but didn't grab my interest. It had a slow start detailing the separate dire circumstances of the two main characters, maybe it should have started when Joan and Maeve meet in the shop then filled in with flashbacks? The narrative kept pausing to describe clothes in detail, but it somehow didn't sell that Maeve's fashion sense was exceptional, it just sounded like she enjoyed expensive clothes.
The romance itself proceeds without obstacles, which is also not particularly involving. I'm not buying a Regency England where everyone is just ducky with women loving women.
Finally, Joan's money troubles are never resolved. As far as I can tell, she ends the book with 200 pounds per year, which is about enough for one servant. It certainly isn't enough to maintain her house and be "benefactress" of the school. That would require at least 2000 pounds per year.
So, a step down from [b:The Accidental Bride|61904986|The Accidental Bride (The Spinsters of Inverley, #2)|Jane Walsh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1666877569l/61904986._SY75_.jpg|97592341], which had pacing issues but was involving.
The romance itself proceeds without obstacles, which is also not particularly involving. I'm not buying a Regency England where everyone is just ducky with women loving women.
Finally, Joan's money troubles are never resolved. As far as I can tell, she ends the book with 200 pounds per year, which is about enough for one servant. It certainly isn't enough to maintain her house and be "benefactress" of the school. That would require at least 2000 pounds per year.
So, a step down from [b:The Accidental Bride|61904986|The Accidental Bride (The Spinsters of Inverley, #2)|Jane Walsh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1666877569l/61904986._SY75_.jpg|97592341], which had pacing issues but was involving.
pushingdessy's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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Thanks to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for approving this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
🌈 A sweet slow-burn for lovers of sapphic period romances!
This is my second Jane Walsh sapphic romance, and the third in the “Spinsters of Inverley” series. Here, we meet Joan, the sheltered Duchess of Stanmere, who receives several nasty surprises at the reading of her deceased husband’s will. Fleeing scandal, she arrives to the seaside town of Inverley, determined not to let anyone find out her real identity.
When fashionable spinster Maeve’s mother remarries and leaves her to fend for herself, she asks to board with Joan’s manor while she seeks employment. Joan is reluctant at first, but decides to take Maeve in. With time, the two women begin to learn more about each other, about themselves and what it means to have something of their own… but it might all fall apart when the missing duchess is found.
I enjoyed this! The main characters' backstories and motivations were interesting, and they complemented one another and went through their own arcs while supporting the other’s journey. There were some angst and darker topics (mostly IPV and femicide, referenced), and also some open-door smut scenes with vulnerable conversations about pleasure and bodies that I really liked.
If you enjoy historical sapphic romances that are spicy and tender, be sure to check this one out!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for approving this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
🌈 A sweet slow-burn for lovers of sapphic period romances!
This is my second Jane Walsh sapphic romance, and the third in the “Spinsters of Inverley” series. Here, we meet Joan, the sheltered Duchess of Stanmere, who receives several nasty surprises at the reading of her deceased husband’s will. Fleeing scandal, she arrives to the seaside town of Inverley, determined not to let anyone find out her real identity.
When fashionable spinster Maeve’s mother remarries and leaves her to fend for herself, she asks to board with Joan’s manor while she seeks employment. Joan is reluctant at first, but decides to take Maeve in. With time, the two women begin to learn more about each other, about themselves and what it means to have something of their own… but it might all fall apart when the missing duchess is found.
I enjoyed this! The main characters' backstories and motivations were interesting, and they complemented one another and went through their own arcs while supporting the other’s journey. There were some angst and darker topics (mostly IPV and femicide, referenced), and also some open-door smut scenes with vulnerable conversations about pleasure and bodies that I really liked.
If you enjoy historical sapphic romances that are spicy and tender, be sure to check this one out!
irl_bookworms's review
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I don’t pick up as much historical romance as I used to, but Walsh always finds a way to draw me back in and The Secret Duchess was so worth it. We have Joan, a recently widowed Duchess who has lost her inheritance due to mysterious circumstances, and we have Maeve, a fashionable spinster who loses her easy way of living and begins to scramble for a means to keep her comforts.
I really enjoyed how Joan and Maeve contrasted and complimented each other, this was especially present in the power dynamic in their relationship - it felt very balanced despite one having more experience and the other having more wealth. Maeve is an absolute charmer and so fun to read, especially side by side to Joan’s moderate naivety. One of my favourite scenes accuranted this difference and honestly made me laugh out loud.
I loved the intimate scenes and really continue to enjoy how Walsh approaches them. It’s an approach that is soft, intimate, creative, and thoughtful. I could read them over and over again.
I didn’t care so much for the mystery element of the story, much as it was a device to get these two women into close proximity. The mystery is resolved pretty much as we expect from the beginning so I wasn’t too invested in that part of the story. I think those looking for a mystery won’t find too much to delve into here, but those who like family drama will be satisfied.
Still, I cannot wait to see what story of Walsh’s will pull me in next.
*I received an eARC from Bold Stroke Books & NetGalley. All opinions are my own.*
I really enjoyed how Joan and Maeve contrasted and complimented each other, this was especially present in the power dynamic in their relationship - it felt very balanced despite one having more experience and the other having more wealth. Maeve is an absolute charmer and so fun to read, especially side by side to Joan’s moderate naivety. One of my favourite scenes accuranted this difference and honestly made me laugh out loud.
I loved the intimate scenes and really continue to enjoy how Walsh approaches them. It’s an approach that is soft, intimate, creative, and thoughtful. I could read them over and over again.
I didn’t care so much for the mystery element of the story, much as it was a device to get these two women into close proximity. The mystery is resolved pretty much as we expect from the beginning so I wasn’t too invested in that part of the story. I think those looking for a mystery won’t find too much to delve into here, but those who like family drama will be satisfied.
Still, I cannot wait to see what story of Walsh’s will pull me in next.
*I received an eARC from Bold Stroke Books & NetGalley. All opinions are my own.*
gkepps's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A historical sapphic romance with a side of mystery and feminism. I liked the characters quite a bit, they were interesting and flawed. It took me a little to really like Maeve, but I got there. The plot with the dowry and inheritance was intriguing, but the pacing was just a little off. But overall the pacing was nice for a romance and mystery for how short it is. A fun easy read!
A historical sapphic romance with a side of mystery and feminism. I liked the characters quite a bit, they were interesting and flawed. It took me a little to really like Maeve, but I got there. The plot with the dowry and inheritance was intriguing, but the pacing was just a little off. But overall the pacing was nice for a romance and mystery for how short it is. A fun easy read!
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